An onion a day keeps everyone away…

December 30, 2010

If you are brave enough to slice up three pounds of this season’s especially pungent onions, this soup will be well worth your tears. A great beginning to any dinner, or enjoyed in a mug, curled on the couch watching really bad tv.

Crush and peel the garlic. You don’t have to mince it; it will caramelize and turn soft and sweet as it cooks. Caramelize the garlic in the olive oil and butter.

Pour in the onions, season with salt and pepper, and stir around just until the onions are all coated in the olive oil/butter.

Add in the fresh thyme and the bay leaf and let the onions caramelize, about 20 minutes.

Once the onions are caramelized and have cooked down, pour in the stock, about 4-6 cups depending on whether you prefer your soup more onion-y or more soup-y.

Then, pour in the beer and simmer, uncovered, for at least an hour and as much as three hours, tasting occasionally to adjust the flavors.

Meanwhile, slice down your bread. Stale bread is perfectly okay for this, just heat it up a bit in a warm (250ºF) oven first to soften it. Toast the bread; you can rub both sides with a cut clove of garlic first, if you like. You’ll want 2 pieces of bread per person – one for the bottom of the bowl, and one for on top.

Grate together about 1/2 cup each of parmesan, gouda, and mozzarella and set it aside.

Preheat your broiler. Remove the thyme sprigs and bay leaf from the soup.

TO SERVE: drop a toast slice in the bottom of each bowl. Ladle in the soup and cover with a second slice of toast. Then cover the toast with cheese. Be generous! You want the cheese to seal in the soup and drape over the edge of the bowl.

Broil for a few minutes, until the cheese is brown and bubbling on top. Garnish with a little fresh thyme, and serve.

[…] But something I always circle back to is soup. I love it. I pretty much have it with every meal. We always have a soup prepared in our fridge to have with lunch at home on the weekends or to take in the office during the week. I enjoy cold soups in the hot Georgia summers; like Avocado or Gazpacho; or good old traditional standbys like Cream of Broccoli or French Onion. […]